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In a Cave

May 20, 2011 By Matthew Fry

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“5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” -1 John 1:5-7

A funny word is “spelunking.” I was about 10 or 11 when I learned what the word meant when my parents took us to a cave in Southern Indiana. Our family had a tradition of going camping on memorial day weekend with some friends and for several years we talked about going into these caves. I pictured the caves to be filled with bears and snakes and so I was nervous about going. My parents took my brother and I’s hands and we began to enter the mouth of this cave. Being inexperienced spelunkers we only brought one small flashlight with us and ignorantly believed that it would be enough to provide us light inside the cave.

As we walked deeper and deeper into the cave we discovered that our tiny flashlight barely lit up the ground 2 or 3 feet in front of us. We turned around and vowed that we would return with a bigger flashlight before the camping weekend came to an end. One of our friends had a powerful spotlight that he said would be a great tool for us to take into the cave and would give enough light for us. We walked back down to the cave with this flashlight and the moment we turned it on inside the cave we were able to see details that we couldn’t before.

The cave was filled with mud puddles, sharp rocks and was MUCH deeper than we were able to see before with our tiny flashlight. We were able to see details of the cave that were before invisible.

John 1:5-7 teaches us that God is the giant flashlight and our lives are these dark caves. When we invite Him into our lives He shines this light in us. This light that helps show details that we weren’t able to see before. It helps us see ourselves as being the dirty/sinful people that we truly are. It isn’t until this light fills our lives that we are able to see what is missing. That we are incomplete without Him and that we need Him more and more every day.

When we let Him direct our paths through the darkness we are made pure. We cut the garbage that filled our life before we realized our need for Him. It makes me think about how the “this little light of mine” song should be changed to “this giant spotlight of mine.”